Monday, June 11, 2018

Displaced Returns Slow In Iraq

The displaced continue to return to their homes in Iraq, but
the rate is drastically slowing down. The previous trend was that as soon as an
area was cleared more and more people started to head back. That is now
slowing, which gives rise to the warning made by the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) that many people may never make that trip.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs reported
that there were 2,045,718 displaced at the end of May 2018. Most of those
people are in central to northern Iraq. There are 620,628 in Ninewa, 350,232 in
Dohuk, 222,738 in Irbil, 184,854 in Salahaddin, 154,020 in Sulaymaniya, 133,770
in Kirkuk, 107,832 in Baghdad, 81,192 in Anbar, 64,674 in Diyala, and 25,794 in
Babil for a total of 1,945,734. The remaining 99,984 were in the south
distributed between Najaf, 30,396, Karbala, 27,018, Wasit, 13,164, Qadisiyah,
12,882, Basra, 8,046, Dhi Qar, 4,098, Maysan, 3,006, and Muthanna, 1,374.

On the other hand, 3,829,758 people have gone home. Ninewa
has received the most returns with 1,416,804, followed by 1,254,654 to Anbar,
534,000 to Salahaddin, 286,462 to Kirkuk, 221,286 to Diyala, 77,046 to Baghdad,
38,736 to Irbil and 780 to Dohuk.

In 2017 when the war with the Islamic State ended there was
a huge number of people heading back to their areas. By the end of the year,
there were over 200,000 returns per month. That slowed to around 100,000 per
month from January to March 2018, and less than that in May. While many people
are leaving the north and center, very few are departing from the south. The
IOM warned that many displaced may not go back due to several reasons. Those
include people who are banned for their connection to IS, destroyed homes, and
the lack of jobs. Iraq maybe reaching a tipping point where all those
interested in going have mostly left, while those remaining either can’t go
back or don’t want to. The same thing happened after the civil war when more
than 1 million people remained in their new areas and never returned.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com